I Have Met My Demons and They are Many: Oculus Release Date Announced

Darlings, you know we are big fans here of Mike Flanagan, the creative mind behind Absentia and the short filmOculus. After much anticipation, a teaser trailer and release date for the feature length version of Oculus has been released. Starring Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica) and Karen Gillan (firecracker Amy Pond on Dr. Who), the story centers on two now-grown children orphaned by a murder that may be related to a haunted antique mirror.

Although the trailer below leaves a little something to be desired, Oculus has consistently been named as one of the creepiest shorts we’ve featured here, and the low-budget but effective Absentia was lauded as one of the best horror films of 2011, so I am still beyond enthusiastic about the feature length release. Director and co-writer Mike Flanagan offers further reassurance recently in an interview with Dread Central, explaining the nearly ten year wait between the release of the short film and the feature length as a desire to find just the right production group and very emphatically not wanting to go in the direction of a found footage film. He explains his approach to the film below:

“Somewhere along the line people stopped being able to tell the difference between something that is scary and something that is startling…I love things that make you feel like you have this intense feeling of dread but you’re not even sure why…We went into Oculus to make it a real pressure cooker…so that it feels as if it has its foot on your neck and keeps applying pressure until the credits. We never give anyone a chance to breathe, which makes for a really intense experience. It’s really exciting and it was really fun to do.”

Even without his previous work, a quote like that has my attention. Watch the teaser below and let us know what you think in the comments. Oculus has an announced release date of April 11, 2014.

I think you’re right about the teaser – it didn’t really grab me either. However, I thought Absentia was very good, and in the linked interview, the director said he waited ten years to find a production partner that would make the film the way he wanted, with the same kind of dread and tension that were the hallmarks of his earlier films. Based on that, I’m in for opening day.